Playground Games has announced a release window for Fable, which is set to launch in Autumn 2026.
The long-awaited title will also be avaliable on PlayStation for the first time in the franchise’s history, launching alongside Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Following a reveal trailer shown during the Xbox Developer Direct yesterday, Fable’s general manager and game director Ralph Fulton spoke to Xbox Wire about how Playground Games is approaching the franchise as a whole.
Fulton described Fable as a reboot rather than a continuation of Lionhead Studios’ original trilogy, allowing the developer to “tell our own, new story.”
“There’s a lot of faithfulness in the way we’ve approached this game,” he said. “Certainly the inspiration of the original trilogy is really clear for everyone to see, but we wanted to make sure that this was a new beginning that would allow us to tell the stories we wanted to tell.”
Fulton said it was “pointless” to try and recreate Lionhead’s work, and instead ensure that Playground made its mark.
“One of the things I said to the team was, ‘Look, we’re not Lionhead – we can’t try to make a Lionhead game.’ This has to be a Playground game because I’m a really firm believer that the personality and the character of a team is visible in the work they do and the games they make.”
He continued: “It felt imperative to me that this was a reboot because we’re starting again as Playground Games, and making Playground’s Fable.”
Fable was initially set for release in 2025, but was pushed to 2026 “in order to make the best game possible.”
The game is the first new installment in the franchise since Fable: The Journey in 2012. Franchise creator Lionhead Studios closed in 2016 alongside Press Play Studios.
Leamington Spa-based Playground Games was founded in 2010, and is known for developing the Forza Horizon series. In 2018, the studio was acquired by Microsoft.
